Spotify removes millions of tracks to combat spam and AI content

Spotify has implemented significant changes to its music catalog and recommendation algorithms to address the rise of low-quality and AI-generated content. The platform reported that over 50 million songs have been removed from user recommendations after being identified as ‘slop’ or spam. While these tracks may still be accessible via direct search, they will no longer appear in editorial or algorithmic recommendations.

In addition to the recommendation changes, Spotify has completely removed more than 75 million tracks from its platform due to serious or repeated violations of its policies. The company uses a combination of user behavior data, mass upload patterns, metadata analysis, and external AI detection tools to identify problematic content. This includes duplicate tracks, search manipulation, spam playlist networks, and extremely short tracks designed solely to inflate play counts.